What is Globalization?
At the symposium on globalization at the SSSR conference, globalization was described as the process in which the world is increasingly defined by common activity. It refers to the extent to which wars, trade, culture, and many other aspects of life, are becoming globally inter-related. It is also a matter of a change in consciousness. People in business, culture, sport, and many other activities are thinking and acting in a global world. Within that process, territoriality is having less significance.

The core of globalization is that there is increasing inter-dependence. What happens in one part of the world affects what happens elsewhere. Some people have seen the term 'globalization' as a cover for a Westernising process. Many people who see globalization as undesirable, see it as a process in which Western capitalism is dominating the world. Many believe that as globalization extends, so extends the power of the Western corporate giants and the nations which harbour them. Together, they keep the Western world rich at the expense of the poverty of many other parts of the world. They dictate the trading terms, the interest rates, and the dominance of highly-mechanised production. They point to the ways in which great agri-businesses are re-working the genetic make-up of seeds so that farmers cannot collect seed from one season to the next but are dependent in purchasing their seeds from the multi-national companies.

The events of September 11th in New York and Washington put the globalization of culture high on the agenda. The destruction of the World Trade Centre and part of the Pentagon was seen by many people, people in the Middle East and parts of Asia, as a protest against Western (and particularly American) trade and military power. But it was also seen as a protest against Western attempts to globalize its culture, to impose its particular set of values and attitudes on the rest of the world. While many in the West are horrified at the ways women are hidden from public life in some Islamic countries, the people of those countries see the Western ways as attacking the structures of family life, the values of respect and obedience of family authority. They consider Western culture to denigrade sexuality and to denigrate family life and women. What they find particularly offensive is the ways in which Western culture is being hoisted upon them, through commercialism and advertising, films and television. The helplessness against the cultural onslaught, which some see as contributing to the break down of family life, the building block of culture and community, sometimes leads to people responding in extreme ways. Pitted against these values are those of the West including those of individual choice and freedom, of equal rights for all individuals irrespective of gender.

The world 'globalization' has only been in general currency since the 1970s, but there is general agreement that the process has been going on for a much longer period of time. For centuries, nations have built empires, some stretching over substantial parts of the globe. Take the empire of Alexander the Great, for example, which reached from Greece down into India. The Roman Empire encompassed much of Europe as well as the Middle East. Since the Renaissance, and the global explorers of 14th and 15th centuries, the European powers have built great empires, dividing most of the globe between them.

In more ancient times, the power of an empire was often seen as a sign of the power of its gods. Religion remained predominantly tribal: each tribe having its own gods, rituals and festivals, priests and temples. In more modern times, the European empires were often 'justified' as bringing 'civilization', and Christianity was seen as the religion of civilization. John Simpson, one of the speakers at the SSSR symposium, noted how the attacks of September 11th had been placed by President Bush in a framework of civilization versus savagery. Yet, for most the World Wars of last century and the horrors of the holocaust had removed any idea that the Western world could be seen as the preserve of civilization. We are not in a new world order, in which savagery is having its last and final gasp, he argued. Rather, we are in a time in which the world order is being further de-structured.

There was wider agreement among the speakers that we were not necessarily heading towards a new, stable world order. While globalization is emphasising our inter-dependence, regional differences are also becoming sharper in our minds. People want to find their sense of identity within the global reality. Regional identification is one way of doing that. Group membership can be a way of responding to what appears to be the irrelevance of one's locality.

Roland Robertson, another speaker at the SSSR symposium, suggested that one of the results of September 11th was authoritarianism. In response to the perceived threat to security, governments will seek to take control. They will be take, as people will willingly give up, their freedom, in return for greater security.

Religion and Globalization
Lester Kurtz, in his book, Gods in the Global Village, has argued that, historically, religions have generally consisted of the beliefs and practices of a particular community. Religions have provided a 'sacred canopy', to use Peter Berger's term, within which people made sense of their world. 'Our ancient ancestors sat around the fire and heard stories about their forebears - about the time when life first emerged in the universe, about lessons for living their lives,' Kurtz says (p.3). In more formal terms, religious ideas can be seen as 'the major organizing principles for explaining the world and defining ethical life' (p.3).

While religious ideas have been deeply connected to specific cultures, Kurtz recognises that religious traditions have always been dynamic, changing as they have encountered each other. There are no 'pure' religious traditions which preserved intact over centuries, he says (p.98). And it has always been the case within cultures, that there have been different versions of the religious tradition for different groups, such as different social groups and classes. The 'sacred canopy' has not generally be uniform.

In the modern world, religions are facing two major challenges. The first, he sees in modernism, which he describes as the emergence of a global, scientific-technological culture related to a scientific view of the world. One of the results of this challenge has been the re-definition of the role of religion in the world, in which the place of technology and science is recognised, but in which religion is seen as focussing on the 'ends' of life and of well-being while science focusses on the means. At the same time, there has been a tendency for religion to withdraw into the personal areas of life with a secularisation of public life in which people from many different religious faiths can share a common social life.

The second is the issue of the pluralism of religion. Some religions, particularly Jewish, Christian and Islam (sometimes known as the religions of the book in that their authority lies primarily in sacred texts, in fact, of similar texts) have claimed exclusive accounts of the nature of reality. The encounter of religions with each other, which is happening with increasing frequency as globalization continues, Kurtz says, fuels 'culture wars' (p.168). Diverse worldviews give rise to different allegiances and different standards in relation to family, law, art, education and politics. Moreover, Kurtz argues that conflicts between people, ethnic groups, classes, and nations are often framed in religious terms. These religious conflicts often take on 'larger-than-life' proportions as the struggle of good against evil (p.170).

'Kurtz does not sees globalization as leading to a unified religion. Rather, religion is becoming a matter of individual choice in which many religions are competing for attention. Within the global marketplace of religion, the 'relatively autonomous sacred canopy may be an artifact of the past' he suggests. But at the same time,

          efforts to unify culture on a global level have been countered by the revival of more localised practices in the form of religious fundamentalist and other protest movements (p.99).

Others agree. Peter Beyer, who has written a major book on religion and globalization, spoke at the SSSR symposium. There is a process of homogenization occurring in religion, he suggested. At the same time, there is an increase in fundamentalism in which people are claiming a distinctiveness over against the global trends towards homogeny. Beyer noted, however, that most emerging fundamentalist groups are associated with world religions. Most are basing themselves on claims to represent 'orthodoxy' of those major traditions.

When people have felt their way of life, perhaps their very being, under attack and when they have felt helpless to do anything about it, religion has often provided a source of hope. People have turned to religion for solutions: either in terms of assistance in dealing with immediate problems, or in the belief that a life beyond this one would bring healing and justice, or in the belief that God would 'break-in', radically changing the status quo as through some apocalyptic event. As problems deepen, sometimes, people have sought greater hope through an emphasis on the purity of faith, either in terms of being true to the origins of the religious tradition, or in terms of rigorously keeping to the tenets of the religion. A sense of comparative helplessness against large social forces, then, can contribute to the growth of groups who take their religion very seriously.

Kurtz notes that not only are 'culture wars' occurring between religious traditions, but in most religions there are 'culture wars' between orthodox and modernist groups (p.172). The orthodox groups tend to be 'tightly bounded' within which moral obligations are seen as rigid and given, and which are wary of the values and attitudes of people outside the group. On the other hand, the modernist groups tend to be 'loosely bounded', seeing moral commitment as 'more voluntary, contingent and fluid' (p.172). Such culture wars have been evident in America between the New Christian Right and 'modernism' both among those who have liberal religious ideas and those who have little interest in religion.

In the Islamic world, the importance of the alliance between religion and the state, adds to the tensions between those who wish to move in orthodox and modernist directions. The orthodox Muslims identify two enemies: the insiders who wish to reduce the power of religious leaders and Islamic law in moving towards modern, secular states; and the outsiders, primarily the United States and Israel, who are seen as attacking the sanctity of their traditions.

The struggles between orthodox and modernists has been a major element in the continuing wars in Afghanistan. After declaring Islam as the official religion of Afghanistan in 1923, King Amanullah outraged some Afghans in 1929 when required all Afghans in Kabul to wear Western dress including European hats. Clerics declared this blasphemous. The king then forbade students to enroll in the Islamic seminary. A religious leader collecting signatures of protest was arrested. It led to rioting, and finally the ousting of King Amanullah (pp.180-181). While the major test of 'orthodoxy' in America is the attitude to abortion, in Afghanistan and in many Islamic countries, it has been the role and status of women.

It is no accident that Afghanistan, as one of the poorest nations on the world, suffering greatly from drought and from war, has had the world's most rigorous religious regime. It may not surprise us too that the nation in which Christianity is most deeply ingrained as part of its sense of identity is found in conflict with the country in which most vigorously identifies with Islam.

Religion in a Divided World
Diversity will inevitably continue both between religions and within religions. Religious life is certain not disappearing. Indeed, globalization appears to have spurred a revitalisation of religious traditions, and the deepening of divisions between orthodox and modernists within religious traditions.

Time Magazine ran a poll on some of the consequences of September 11th on the behaviour of American populations. Alongside the hesitancy shown by many Americans about flying was the fact that many had gone back to their churches. Sixty-seven per cent of American adults claimed that they had attended a church service as a result of the attacks of September 11th.

Part of the reason for this is insecurity. Many see religion as offering a sense of security in an insecure world. God is seen as one who protects and guards, in a way beyond anything that human security systems can offer. Further, religion provides the rituals through which anger and sorrow can be expressed. The feeling of helplessness among Americans in the face of the attacks has probably strengthened religious enthusiasm.

However, there is another dimension. Being Christian is seen by most American people as part of what it means to be American. The fact that the attacks of September 11th were carried out in the name of Islam, even though most Islamic people dissociated themselves from them, had the consequence of framing the conflict in Islamic / Christian terms, a framing which most political and religious leaders have rejected. Nevertheless, a consequence of September 11th has been a great increase in American patriotism and identity both as American and as Christian. The Stars and Stripes have appeared in almost every house, office, church, on clothes, bedspreads and sporting uniforms throughout the country.

Just as so often religions have been used to justify violence, out of religion has come the critique of violence and nonviolent social reform movements. Around the world, religious traditions are currently being used as vehicles for protest. But religions can also be used to bring greater harmony.

Kurtz argues that a serious challenge to religious toleration and diversity, which is essential to our co-existence in a global village, is exclusivist truth claims. He points out that most religious traditions have within them themes which can make a contribution to a multicultural world. For example, he suggests that Christians need to re-discover the non-violent strength of the founder, who insists that all people are children of God, and that the test of one's relationship with God is whether one loves one's enemies and brings good news to the poor (p.238).

He suggests that if we are to share life in the global village, there will probably need to be secularised political orders at the broadest level, within which the religious freedom of individual traditions must be protected (p.239). He suggests that we must demilitarise our conflicts and learn how to conduct them creatively (p.239). Thirdly, a basic global ethical ethos must be developed and legitimated by the various religious traditions. He notes that each of the major religions has ethical standards which promote a basic sense of justice and compassion. A set of minimal cultural norms should be codified in secular media. (Debate continues as to whether the idea of human rights can be used in this context.) Kurtz notes that
          it is unlikely ... that the injustices of the current global economic order, in which half the world's population lives on the verge of starvation and lacks minimal levels of shelter and clothing, can sustain a peaceful world (p.239).

Kurtz' hope is that
the ideas of active nonviolence, growing out of a fertile confrontation between Eastern and Western religious traditions, may be preparing the way for a new order which mitigates the spiral of violence and that a new spirit of interfaith dialogue will prepare the way for a multicultural ethos that will respect everyone's beliefs while cultivating our common life (p.240).
We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters, he concludes, or we shall die together as fools (p.240).

Reference:
Lester Kurtz, God's in the Global Village: The World's Religions in Sociological Perspective, Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, California, 1995.